Inventory management system protection for network traffic surge resistant platform

Abstract

A network traffic surge resistant platform is described herein. An example system includes a network storage, and one or more servers configured as a commerce platform including an authentication manager. The commerce platform generates a first secret code and sends the first secret code via a first communication medium associated with a first identifier. The commerce platform also generates a second secret code and sends the second secret code via a second communication medium associated with a second identifier. In response to determining the first input code matching the first secret code and the second input code matching the second secret code, the commerce platform authorizes a transaction associated with a particular browser and associates the transaction with a customer record associated with both the first and second identifiers.

1 . A network traffic surge resistant system comprising:
 a commerce platform configured to manage a surge network traffic, wherein the commerce platform comprises:
 a customer database that stores customer information to facilitate assigning an order from a checkout interface in a browser to a particular account for security and fulfillment; 
 a transaction API that facilitates communication between one or more servers, a payment processor, a merchant network, and the customer database of a customer; and 
 a packager that receives input from a merchant to generate an offer instantiator and an offer package using software bricks, stored in the packager, that define one or more of parameters, metadata, available inventory, and audiovisual assets of an offer; 
 wherein the offer package contains information necessary for the offer instantiator, when accessed by a browser, to render a cart interface and a checkout interface, including a description of the available inventory to facilitate a customer browsing the inventory through the cart interface, without making any backend calls to the one or more webservers or the transaction API; and 
 wherein after the offer instantiator and the offer package are generated, the packager publishes the offer instantiator onto the one or more servers and pushes the offer package onto the network storage, with a link to the offer instantiator being transmitted to the customer. 
   
     
     
         2 . The network traffic surge resistant system of  claim 1  wherein the offer instantiator is located on a server and is accessible via a domain that is operated by the commerce platform, or alternatively, the offer is located on another server and is accessible via a domain that is operated by another party such as by the merchant network or a third party. 
     
     
         3 . The network traffic surge resistant system of  claim 1  wherein the merchant dynamically and asynchronously update the offer package with new or updated parameters, new or updated metadata, new or updated available inventory, or new or updated audiovisual assets for an updated offer package by transmitting input to the packager to push the updated offer package to replace the offer package, while the customers access the offer instantiator without interruption. 
     
     
         4 . The network traffic surge resistant system of  claim 1  wherein the merchant network comprises an inventory database and an inventory interface that uses the inventory database to provide the inventory data object, wherein the inventory interface changes a status of an inventory such as reserving the inventory or marking the inventory for fulfillment, and wherein the inventory interface limits a frequency at which the packager requests a refresh of the inventory data object. 
     
     
         5 . The network traffic surge resistant system of  claim 4  wherein upon activating the link to the offer instantiator, the browser performs a static call to retrieve the offer package and an instantiating script to renter the cart interface, wherein the cart interface performs pre-checkout cart management functions using resources of the browser, and wherein the pre-checkout cart management functions include browsing inventory as defined by the inventory data object, as processed by the software bricks. 
     
     
         6 . The network traffic surge resistant system of  claim 1  wherein upon activating an action button, the browser renders, based on the offer package, the checkout interface and makes a backend call that includes inventory unit identifiers that identify current inventory in a current cart of the cart interface and quantities of the current inventory in the current cart of the cart interface, and wherein the backend call causes the one or more servers to calculate an actual cost of items in the current cart, including a unit cost of the items and associated fees, and report that total to the checkout interface. 
     
     
         7 . The network traffic surge resistant system of  claim 6  wherein the checkout interface displays the total and performs a redirect to the payment processor that causes the payment processor to instantiate one or more payment electronic widgets or credit card payment widget in the checkout interface. 
     
     
         8 . The network traffic surge resistant system of  claim 1  further comprising an authentication manager that manages authentication of the customer and protects the customer database from negative effects of surges in network traffic that result in frequent queries into the customer database. 
     
     
         9 . The network traffic surge resistant system of  claim 8  wherein the authentication manager authorizes a transaction based on a determination whether the customer enter secrets matching identifiers requested by one or more authorization challenge interfaces. 
     
     
         10 . A network traffic surge resistant system comprising:
 network storage; and   one or more servers configured as a commerce platform, the commerce platform configured to:
 generate a script, an offer package, and an offer instantiator; 
 store the script and the offer package onto the network storage, the offer instantiator providing the location of the script and the offer package in the network storage; 
   wherein, in response to a browser operating on a computing device accessing the offer instantiator, causing, by the offer instantiator, the browser to retrieve the script and the offer package from the network storage.   
     
     
         11 . The network traffic surge resistant system of  claim 10  wherein the commerce platform comprises an authentication manager, and wherein, in response to a signal from the commerce platform, causing, by the script and based on the offer package, the browser to instantiate an authorization interface to receive entry of first and second identifiers and first and second input codes; and
 wherein the authentication manager is configured to:
 generate a first secret code and send the first secret code via a first communication medium associated with the first identifier; 
 generate a second secret code and send the second secret code via a second communication medium associated with the second identifier; and 
 in response to determining the first input code matching the first secret code and the second input code matching the second secret code, authorize a transaction associated with the browser and associate the transaction with a customer record associated with both the first and second identifiers. 
 
 
     
     
         12 . The network traffic surge resistant system of  claim 11 , wherein the authentication manager is configured to query a customer database for the customer record using the first and second identifiers to query the customer database. 
     
     
         13 . The network traffic surge resistant system of  claim 12 , wherein the authentication manager is configured to:
 generate and send the first secret code at a first time;   generate and send the second secret code at the first time; and   query the customer database at a second time after the first time, the second time being (a) after determining that the first input code matches the first secret code and the second input code matches the second secret code and (b) before the authentication manager authorizes a transaction.   
     
     
         14 . The network traffic surge resistant system of  claim 12 , wherein authentication manager is configured to generate and send the first secret code at a first time, generate and send the second secret code at the first time, query the customer database at substantially the same time. 
     
     
         15 . The network traffic surge resistant system of  claim 12 , when (a) the first input code matches the first secret code and the second input code matches the second secret code, and (b) the customer record associated with the first and the second identifiers does not exist in the customer database, the authentication manager is configured to create the customer record associated with the first and the second identifiers. 
     
     
         16 . The network traffic surge resistant system of  claim 11 , wherein the first communication medium is a first type of communication medium and the second communication medium is a second type of communication medium that is different than the first type. 
     
     
         17 . The network traffic surge resistant system of  claim 16 , wherein the first type of communication medium is a mobile network and the first identifier is a mobile number, and the second type of communication medium is email and the second identifier is an email address. 
     
     
         18 . The network traffic surge resistant system of  claim 11 , wherein the authentication manager is configured to, in response to determining that the first input code does not match the first secret code or the second input code does not match the second secret code, cancel the transaction and perform inventory management to release inventory associated with the transaction. 
     
     
         19 . The network traffic surge resistant system of  claim 11 , wherein the first and second secret codes are generated without first determining whether the customer record associated with the first and second identifiers exists within the customer database. 
     
     
         20 . The network traffic surge resistant system of  claim 11 , wherein to cause the browser to instantiate the authorization interface, the script generates instructions, using the resources of the computing device, for the browser to execute based on the offer package.